One of the greatest achievements of my life was collecting all 120 stars in Super Mario 64. I spent hours of my free time making Mario run and jump through every level until I had every last star.

The game had its scary parts. There was a haunted house level where ghosts came out of the walls and a piano came alive and tried to eat you. There was a level where a giant underwater snake tries to eat you too.

But the scariest part of Super Mario 64 of all was Dorrie.

Dorrie lived in the Hazy Maze Cave level. Hazy Maze Cave itself is already a bit frightening. Not too scary, but not a fun and calming trip to the ice-cream factory either.

First, you make Mario go through a door. Then past some spiders. Up a hill where giant boulders roll towards you like out of Indian Jones. So far, standard Mario affair.

But then you go down an elevator and into a giant cavern. The size of this cavern is enormous relative to the rest of the level. There's light streaming down through the dark. There's water down there. And you can just about make out a large shadowy figure swimming down in the darkness...

As you walk down to the water, the music changes. It's no longer upbeat and fun. Now it's quiet and eerie as if the music itself is trying to be quiet so the monster won't notice it.

There's a sign. "Don't get too closer to Dorrie or you might get eaten." Oh, Christ. Oh, God. Who or what is Dorrie? You don't want to find out.

You swim around in the water for a bit. Then DEAR GOD WHAT'S THAT

It's a fucking DINOSAUR with a giant MOUTH about to EAT YOU. And it's COMING TOWARDS YOU.

That's the Dorrie the sign was talking about. OH CHRIST GET OUT OF THE WATER GET OUT OF THE WATER GET OUT OF THE–

But it turns out that Dorrie doesn't eat you. In fact, she's rather gentle. You can even climb on her. Not that you'd want to because of how creepy she is.

Okay, so you HAVE to climb on top of her. There is a star just out of reach and the only way you can reach it is by climbing onto Dorrie's back. So even if Dorrie terrifies you, you really have no choice. You have to climb on Dorrie.

Then – RSPCA be damned – you have to jump up and POUND down on Dorrie's back. When you do this, Dorrie squeals in pain. I kind of feel sorry for her now.

Then finally she lowers her head and you can walk across her neck and stand on her head. From here, you can reach the star.

I'm not the only one who Dorrie frightened:

In Super Mario 64, there was a sort of Loch Ness Monster named Dorrie. This wasn’t even an enemy, just a friendly sort of living transportation that swims in circles in its small pond, but something about its size, and the fact that you could tumble into the water beneath and look up at it, it unsettled me.